~ A fairy-tale cottage by the Seine in Normandy

Category Archives: Normandy

Savour the variety of Easter chocolate on offer in France. From the multiplicity of French labels in the major supermarkets (the global brands compete for a look-in) to the local chocolate makers – every village has at least one – the choices are delightful, and affordable.

This charming hedgehog – herisson- nestling in his bag of grass from our local boulanger-turned-chocolatier for Easter.

Normandy is known for its seafood – moules, oysters, coquilles St-Jacques – so why not chocolate versions?

Hens are everywhere: a chocolate French hen is to be expected.
No Easter Bunny in France. Instead, the bells are said to fly away from the churches and return with chocolate by Easter morning. So there are chocolate bells galore although I have no pictures. But here’s a cheeky Easter bunny from the supermarket.

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The church of St-Ouen, at the heart of our busy local market town of Pont Audemer, is currently undergoing a 2.5M EUR restoration.

After several years under scaffolding, the difference is now visible around the front entrance and the tower.

Take a moment to look inside this cool, ancient edifice. The oldest, Romanesque sections around the choir were built between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries.

The gate and north tower were constructed starting in around 1485, and the striking gothic nave with aisles and side chapels were build between 1505 and 1515 by Rouen architect Roulland le Roux, who also worked on Rouen cathedral. The south tower was never completed due to financial difficulties.

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Normandy is magical at Christmas, and Pont-Audemer is no exception. The main streets sparkle with overhead lights, and each shop and half timbered building is laden with traditional decorations. The butchers and bakers and fishmongers work long hours to deliver the Christmas and Réveillon feasts. And it’s not just the streets that light up. Here, Père Noël has had to borrow a boat to get the job done along one of Pont-Audemer’s charming canals.

A guest contributor takes us on a tour of Normandy’s World War 2 battlefields

The world-changing liberation of Europe began on 6th June 1944 on the beaches, in the fields, through the streets and in the bocage of western Normandy. The region is replete with museums and memorials which tell the awesome and uplifting story of the Allied Invasion and the individual deeds of countless brave and clever men and women.

The historic D-Day battlefields are well worth a visit, and start about an hour’s drive west of Les Iris. A D-Day visit does need to be planned, as there is more than enough to see and do in one day. But visitors who wish to devote more time to it will be well rewarded.

The closest beaches to Les Iris are Sword (British), Juno (Canadian) and Gold (British). These are flanked on the east by the River Orne and its Canal. Omaha and Utah (both American) are further to the west.

A good place to start is the famous Pegasus Bridge at Benouville, over the Caen Canal, the first bit of France to be liberated just after midnight on 6th June, by British glider-borne troops, in a brilliantly planned and executed swoop. This strategic crossing was taken and held by lightly armed airborne troops, including paratroopers of the 6th Airborne Division dropped in the small hours, until relieved by Brigadier the Lord Lovat, whom Churchill described as “the handsomest gentleman ever to slit a throat”. His commandos, fighting hard across-country all the way from Sword beach, four miles away, arrived shortly after midday, just two minutes behind schedule. Nevertheless, the immaculately mannered, Highland aristocrat modestly apologised for being ‘late’.

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From here it is a short drive north to Ouistreham on the coast, then west past Sword and Juno to the western end of Gold beach at Arromanches, with its museums, restaurants and cafes and what remains of the ingenious, artificial Mulberry Harbour, which the British brought with them.

At Omaha Beach (American) west of Arromanches, where the GIs took heavy casualties, the informative and moving American Cemetery and Memorial overlooking the beach is a must-see. Look out for the photographs of the four Niland brothers, on whom the movie, Saving Private Ryan, is based. Fritz (the real-life Ryan) was shipped back to America so that the Niland family wouldn’t lose all their sons. Mirabile dictu, Edward, who was originally thought dead, escaped Japanese captivity, so that in fact two of the four brothers survived the war.

But the big choker is the sight of 9,000 headstones, mostly marble crosses, interspersed with stars of David, all arranged in perfect symmetry, marking the graves of American soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom, right across Normandy, and were laid to rest here in the majestic Omaha Beach Cemetery.

If your spirits need a lift after this sobering experience, visit the nearby Pointe du Hoc, to the west of Omaha, where US Rangers scaled 100 foot cliffs on London Fire Brigade ladders to capture the enemy gun emplacements on top, which they did in a dazzlingly well-planned, courageous and successful manoeuvre.

Utah Beach (American) on the Cotentin or Cherbourg Peninsula is the most westerly of the five beaches and the one on which the German resistance was lightest. If you have time, visit the invasion museum at Sainte-Mère-Eglise, which is arguably the best in Normandy.

Those who are old enough to have seen the film The Longest Day will remember that one American’s parachute snagged on the church tower – and he’s still there, it would appear!

On the return journey, take the time to visit Bayeux, if you can. This ancient town was one of the first the British, coming south from Gold beach, took from the retreating Germans. Being spared serious fighting, Bayeux retains its medieval charm, not to mention the Bayeux Tapestry, which tells the (somewhat spun) story of the last successful Invasion of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror.

Bayeux also has a good ’44 museum and across the road, you will find the main British cemetery in Normandy, wonderfully well-maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It contains the remains of over 4,000 Commonwealth sailors, soldiers and airmen, over 300 of them unidentified, as well as over 500 war graves of other nationalities, the majority German.

Like all such cemeteries, it is laid out in an under-stated, dignified and uniform style, first adopted in WWI. One of the original designers, Gertrude Jekyll, wished to create the ambience of an English garden and suggested that small rose bushes should be planted among the graves so that “The shadow of an English rose shall fall at some point each day on every headstone.”

In the cemetery register, look up the citation to Sidney Bates, the 23-year old son of a Rag-‘n-Bone man from Camberwell in south London. The Corporal’s quick thinking in thwarting a determined enemy attack and courage in fighting despite multiple wounds until his battalion’s position was no longer threatened, earned him a posthumous Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award. The Victoria Cross insignia is carved on his headstone with the words, ‘For Valour’.

Visiting all these sites would require at least two days – and this only covers the first phase of the Normandy campaign: the ‘break-in’ to establish and consolidate a beach-head. The ‘break-out’ took two more months of heavy fighting and even heavier casualties. The British & Canadians, driving south, were time and again checked by the Germans in desperately hard battles around and beyond Caen, before General Montgomery eventually took it and broke out south towards Falaise.

Meanwhile, the Americans took St. Lo in the west and General Patton unleashed his tanks in a fast-moving right hook, or series of hooks, heading first south then east (and north) to Argentan, to trap German Army Group B, in a giant pincer movement, between the two allied armies, in what is known as the Falaise gap or pocket.

Although some fugitives managed to flee eastwards, the bulk of the German forces here were killed or captured. Enemy resistance in France, not just in Normandy, effectively collapsed and the way lay open to Paris, which was liberated on 25th August 1944. Amidst scenes of delirious joy, the Parisians warmly welcomed their liberators. Allied Commander-in-Chief General Eisenhower held back his American forces to allow the Free French 2nd Armoured Division (DDB) the honour of re-taking their Capital.

The enemy was now caught between two fronts – American & British in the West and Russian in the East – resulting, after many more months of heavy fighting on the roads to Berlin, in complete victory over the Nazis.

Everyone, young and old, returning or a first-time visitor, will find something of interest in the inspiring stories of D-Day. I visited alongside parties of schoolchildren from all over Europe – Britain, Germany, and many other countries. There was no jingoism or militarism, just people of all ages and from all over the world, learning the story of those who put themselves in harm’s way to secure the freedom, peace and prosperity which many enjoy today and which we perhaps too often take for granted.

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If you’re heading to Normandy and interested in gardening, a visit to Monet’s garden at Giverny will be on your bucket list. It’s an easy hour’s drive from Les Iris and a wonderful day trip.

For those in London before April 20th 2016, a great warm-up is Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse at the Royal Academy. Bringing together an immense number of works by Monet and his contemporaries, the exhibition examines the role gardens played in the evolution of art from the early 1860s to the 1920s.

It’s a blockbuster exhibit that brings many works together for the first time in living memory. Book ahead and expect crowds. The exhibition is free for under 16s, and the free Art Detectives guide kept our children engaged.

And if you can’t make it to London, the Royal Academy have produced an informative series of videos introducing artists’ gardens in northern France – Monet at Giverny, Pierre Bonnard’s garden at Vernonnet in Normandy, and Henri Le Sidaner’s garden in the medieval village of Gerberoy, Picardy.

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All over France there are green routes or voies vertes that let you explore the country on two wheels – without contending with traffic. The cycle roads are well signposted and often built over old rail routes. These pictures were taken along the route between Evreux and the abbey at Le Bec Hellouin, in Normandy.

Haystacks and windmills

Fields of wheat, corn, lettuce

Fresh eggs, perhaps

Wildflowers

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Another visit to the wonderful zoological park at Clères, which we have visited before. The collection was established as a private zoo by ornithologist Jean Delacour at his chateau north of Rouen. Later donated to the state, the collection of animals reflects his travels in Vietnam, Madagascar, and Central America. On this visit the gardens were a mass of spring flowers and blossoms, and the animals and birds, who live in semi-freedom, were active and full of song.

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We’re getting excited about the forthcoming French film of Posy Simmonds’ comic novel, Gemma Bovery. Set in Normandy, it’s a modern retelling of the classic French novel Madame Bovary – with a heavy dose of English irony thrown in. The book is great on the English and the English in Normandy, on our relationship with the food, the countryside and the French. The film is released on September 10th in France, and stars Gemma Aterton. Here’s the trailer.

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What’s better than an attic full of the things someone once treasured, then grew up or turned in another direction, and now here’s the thing, dusty and worn yet special in some way just waiting to be discovered. Ebay thrives on this market of lost things but it isn’t the same, is it. There isn’t that physical thrill you get when you’ve sorted through the junk to find the very thing, shined it up with the palm of your hand, and imagined it into your life.

Maybe that’s why the brocante still thrives in France, this most sensory of cultures being reluctant to part with the thrill that comes with the hunt. Here are our latest finds, from consignment brocante type shop La Grange de Janna, just relocated from Honfleur to Pont-Audemer and helpfully open every day. Furniture, books, electronics, audio, vintage and modern – it’s all here in a cavernous warehouse.

At Les Iris the walls are fairly bare and we’re always looking for pictures that connect to our lives here in Normandy, while small enough to suit the cottage’s dimensions. The miniature oil of a vase of flowers will be perfect. The fashion plate will remind our daughters not to complain about the clothes they have to wear.

And the mandolin – an impulse purchase, redolent of Picasso, southern summers, Shakespearean serenades. It needs re-stringing and a polish, but is in good shape, and made by Masspacher in Paris. A fine old thing will get new life.

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It’s a truism to state that there’s little glamour in flying. All those transatlantic flights, lodged in the back of the plane with a screaming toddler and a broken TV screen. Or the low-cost landlocked journeys east, as far as you can go and still be in Europe, knees in your face, costs a fortune for a coffee. So what a joy to start a flight from Deauville Airport!

It’s a two-gate terminal with a couple of weekly flights to City Airport, London, and charter flights during holiday seasons. There’s a flying school, and many private planes coming in and out. In the parking lot (a mere few metres from the airport terminal) a child of around 7 announces “My Dad has his own private plane.” Most people here do, I think. There’s a smart bar upstairs, and a restaurant with crisp white tablecloths and 3-course meals. No rushing for ferries and trains, or driving hours south from the ports. What better way to pop into your holiday home in Deauville or Honfleur?

The CityJet plane is luxurious: leather seats and good leg room. Drinks are free, staff are courteous. There is fresh coffee and a Leonidas chocolate before landing. The plane stays low on a cloudless day and offers excellent views of Deauville with its sandy beach, marina, casino and racecourse. Later, there’s a birds eye view of London from Battersea Power Station over Parliament and along to the Olympic Park with its gleaming arenas. “A Peter Pan view” comments the briefcase-wielding gentleman in front of me who the staff know by name, perhaps he has something to do with the races or the film festival. Anyway, he’s right: if this were a Disney ride, you’d get back in the queue for another go. How’s that for a great flight.